This invention relates to new and useful tunicamine derivatives and the preparation thereof.
We already provided in our Japanese Patent Publication No. 29156/73 a new anitibiotic substance, tunicamycin, and its preparation, which exhibits high antiviral and anitbacterial activities and is useful for treatment and protection against a variety of viral infections such as those caused by Newcastle disease virus (NDV), influenza virus and tobacco-mosaic virus and of bacterial infections such as those caused by the genera Bacillus, Candida, Microbacterium, etc. Tunicamycin is produced and isolated from cultivation of a tunicamycin-producing strain of the genus Streptomyces, e.g. Streptomyces lysosuperificus, in a nutrient medium under aerobic conditions as shown in the above-mentioned publication and has a chemical structure, which we have now confirmed, of the formula: ##STR2## wherein n represents integers of 8 to 11 inclusive. As shown in the formula above, tunicamycin contains, as its structural units, uracil, fatty acid, N-acetylglucosamine and an anomalous C.sub.11 -aminodeoxy-dialdose. The last-mentioned C.sub.11 -aminodeoxy-dialdose, which is attached to an uracil residue, is a new sugar and we now designate the new sugar of the following formula as tunicamine. ##STR3##